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May 23, 2013

Autodesk Gallery Powers of Design Exhibit: 10**15 Cat's Eye Nebula

I work out of our office on One Market Street in San Francisco. My standup-desk is right across from our Gallery at One Market. One of our newer exhibits is called Powers of Design. It was first featured at the Technology Entertainment & Design (TED) conference last year. Powers of Design depicts the size of everything from the inconceivably small to the mind-blowingly large. I thought I'd cover the exhibit elements, one at a time, over the next few months. I started small and am working my way up.

Cat’s Eye Nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Image courtesy of NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

1015 MAGNITUDE
1,000,000,000,000,000 m
1 trillion kilometers

Cat’s Eye Nebula

9.5 Trillion Kilometers

The Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) resides in the constellation Draco
(Latin for “dragon”), about 3,300 light-years from Earth. Coincidentally,
dragon eyes look just like cat eyes, although this is really just a guess
since dragons are mythical.

With a diameter of nearly 9.5 trillion kilometers, NGC 6543 is one of the
most complex nebulae known, revealing remarkable structures such as
knots, jets, bubbles, and sinewy arc-like features. In the center of the
Cat’s Eye (the pupil if you will) there is a bright, hot star approximately
10,000 times as luminous as the sun. Nearly 1,000 years ago this star
lost its outer envelope, producing the nebula.

This thing is 10 times the size of our entire solar system!

Thanks to Global Content Manager, Matt Tierney, for the images and text that comprise the exhibit element. This is just one of the many exhibits in the gallery at One Market in San Francisco. The gallery is open to the public on Wednesdays from 12 pm to 5 pm, and admission is free. Visit us.

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Autodesk Gallery Powers of Design Exhibit: 10**15 Cat's Eye Nebula

I work out of our office on One Market Street in San Francisco. My standup-desk is right across from our Gallery at One Market. One of our newer exhibits is called Powers of Design. It was first featured at the Technology Entertainment & Design (TED) conference last year. Powers of Design depicts the size of everything from the inconceivably small to the mind-blowingly large. I thought I'd cover the exhibit elements, one at a time, over the next few months. I started small and am working my way up.

Cat’s Eye Nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Image courtesy of NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

1015 MAGNITUDE
1,000,000,000,000,000 m
1 trillion kilometers

Cat’s Eye Nebula

9.5 Trillion Kilometers

The Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) resides in the constellation Draco
(Latin for “dragon”), about 3,300 light-years from Earth. Coincidentally,
dragon eyes look just like cat eyes, although this is really just a guess
since dragons are mythical.

With a diameter of nearly 9.5 trillion kilometers, NGC 6543 is one of the
most complex nebulae known, revealing remarkable structures such as
knots, jets, bubbles, and sinewy arc-like features. In the center of the
Cat’s Eye (the pupil if you will) there is a bright, hot star approximately
10,000 times as luminous as the sun. Nearly 1,000 years ago this star
lost its outer envelope, producing the nebula.

This thing is 10 times the size of our entire solar system!

Thanks to Global Content Manager, Matt Tierney, for the images and text that comprise the exhibit element. This is just one of the many exhibits in the gallery at One Market in San Francisco. The gallery is open to the public on Wednesdays from 12 pm to 5 pm, and admission is free. Visit us.